Linux

The other day I stumbled upon a really good Linux optimization package of Ubuntu 11 – the nice thing about this is the pre-setup of many media and office tools just to name a few.

If you’re new to Linux or like me, just hate spending hours trying to get things to work after an install, head over to Pinguy OS and check them out. This will make a great fresh install or work off of a live CD.

1> Using fdisk -u /dev/sdX (X=new drive), make an exact partition setup on the new drive as the original

The -u command allows to size the new drive exact as the old – this is important for step #3 #4

2> Then copy the old drives MBR data to the new drive using the command:dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1

Note: /dev/sdb is the original drive & /dev/sda is the new drive { VERY IMPORTANT!! }

3> Then copy the contents from the original drive to the new drive

dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/sda1 bs=4096

Note: /dev/sdb1 is the original drive & /dev/sda1 is the new drive { VERY IMPORTANT!! }

Also note that this will take a lot of time (depending on how large your drive is), in a new termial run the “top” command (by itself) to see if the dd is taking up CPU cycles and ensure it is not hung). For example, a 100GB drive will take ~90 min with fast drives and a fast system!

4> Then resize the new drive with Gparted or qtparted or parted or via ntfsresize

ntfsrezize -f -v /dev/sda1

5> When you first boot your new drive allow the check disk to run and then allow the system to reboot and then reboot one more time for good measure.

6> When get into Windows, Windows will see the new drive load drivers and then ask to reboot once more. When done you’re complete.

This worked great for what I needed. Here I traded out an older 120GB drive (PATA) into a new 320GB SATA drive with little fan fair.

Your mileage may vary; but, follow the instructions and observe the command notes and you’ll be fine.

But this (as noted) found I had no source files found, then I had to do a massive update to compile all the source packages by going to “Software Sources” control panel in System -> Administration which has some boxes checking the unchecked source.